MetaFilter posts tagged with Germany and warhttp://www.metafilter.com/tags/Germany+war
Posts tagged with 'Germany' and 'war' at MetaFilter.Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:48:17 -0800Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:48:17 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60You can't be sure where any search will lead.http://www.metafilter.com/161006/You%2Dcant%2Dbe%2Dsure%2Dwhere%2Dany%2Dsearch%2Dwill%2Dlead
<blockquote>It all started with a question, one my parents had been unable to answer for 70 years. What happened to the French doctor they had taken in during the Russian siege of Budapest? He was an escaped prisoner of war. They were just trying to hang on. Together, they hid in a cellar, beneath the feet of German soldiers who had made the home their headquarters.</blockquote>
San Francisco Journalist John Temple <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/07/champagne-in-the-cellar/490376">follows the threads of World War II into the present</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.161006Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:48:17 -0800RumpleBattle of the Somme centenary commemoratedhttp://www.metafilter.com/160700/Battle%2Dof%2Dthe%2DSomme%2Dcentenary%2Dcommemorated
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-36680052">BBC: Commemorations</a> are taking place to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme in World War One. Guns were fired in central London ahead of a two-minute silence at the time the battle commenced at 07:30 on 1 July 1916. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/projects/your-somme">Ever wondered what life would have been like for you 100 years ago?</a>, <a href="http://bbc.co.uk/guides/zy98xsg">Why was the first day of the Somme such a disaster?</a> Guardian - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/the-somme-during-the-first-world-war-and-now-interactive">The Somme during the first world war and now – interactive</a>
BBC: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-36611400">Battle of the Somme Commemorations, Live</a>
Just in case anyone doesn't know what happened, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme">Wikipedia Somme article.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.160700Fri, 01 Jul 2016 02:56:28 -0800marienbad"...thou shalt not be a bystander" ― Yehuda Bauerhttp://www.metafilter.com/155635/thou%2Dshalt%2Dnot%2Dbe%2Da%2Dbystander%2DYehuda%2DBauer
<a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/holocaust-survivors/">Hollywood's Last Survivors</a> The Holocaust ended 70 years ago. To honor this anniversary <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em> set out to find and interview every living Holocaust survivor with entertainment industry connections. Over a seven month period, they discovered only 11 people who lived through the <em>Shoah</em> who remain from the world of entertainment, including Oscar winners, actors, Dr. Ruth and even Judy Garland's hairstylist.
Their personal stories were documented in video interviews. <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/holocaust-survivors/why-this-matters/">Why?</a> The window for hearing these stories is about to close: it is estimated that fewer than 100,000 survivors are still alive around the world and that number is declining quickly.
One of the interviews is with Dario Gabbai, a Greek survivor who is the last living <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Sonderkommando.html">Sonderkommando</a>.
The <a href="https://sfi.usc.edu/">USC Shoah Foundation</a> was <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/holocaust-survivors/the-legacy-of-schindlers-list/">founded</a> by Stephen Spielberg. It is "dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action." To date, they have archived 53,000 testimonials. Related educational website is <a href="http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/">iWitness</a>.
<i><blockquote>"The act of absorbing history often requires peering backward and forward at once. What happened during the Nazis' reign is a piece of history that cannot be allowed to die. But these 11 narratives also offer uncomfortably contemporary lessons. <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/holocaust-survivors/why-this-matters/">Think of Rwanda, Sudan, Syria, even the surge of xenophobia after Paris and San Bernardino. Genocide. Wide-scale displacement. Venomous political rhetoric. The world needs a constant reminder of what unchecked hatred and state-sponsored violence and nationalistic apathy breed: the worst kinds of human misery.</a>
That's why these testimonials matter so much. These 11 men and women have suffered an atrocity and yet all speak of hope, love, forgiveness — and responsibility. As Ruth Westheimer, who was orphaned by the Holocaust, says, "People like me need to stand up and be counted to help repair the world."</blockquote></i> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.155635Thu, 17 Dec 2015 11:27:20 -0800zarq"Nature," wrote Hitler, "knows no political boundaries."http://www.metafilter.com/152756/Nature%2Dwrote%2DHitler%2Dknows%2Dno%2Dpolitical%2Dboundaries
<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/sep/24/hitlers-world/">Hitler's World by Timothy Snyder <small>[New York Review of Books]</small></a> <blockquote>In Hitler's world, the law of the jungle was the only law. People were to suppress any inclination to be merciful and were to be as rapacious as they could. Hitler thus broke with the traditions of political thought that presented human beings as distinct from nature in their capacity to imagine and create new forms of association. Beginning from that assumption, political thinkers tried to describe not only the possible but the most just forms of society. For Hitler, however, nature was the singular, brutal, and overwhelming truth, and the whole history of attempting to think otherwise was an illusion. Carl Schmitt, a leading Nazi legal theorist, explained that politics arose not from history or concepts but from our sense of enmity. Our racial enemies were chosen by nature, and our task was to struggle and kill and die.</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.152756Sat, 05 Sep 2015 10:41:47 -0800FizzWWI in Colorhttp://www.metafilter.com/133382/WWI%2Din%2DColor
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShpYEml9Sk&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">World War I in Color</a> is a documentary designed to make the Great War come alive for a 21st-century audience. The events of 1914-18 are authoritatively narrated by Kenneth Branagh, who presents the military and political overview, while interviews with historians add different perspectives in six 48 minute installments annotated within. <blockquote><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShpYEml9Sk&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Catastrophe"</a> This first episode looks at the fact that between 1914 and 1918, 65 million men took up arms. Ten million were killed and 20 million were emotionally and physically incapacitated. The war ushered in new terminologies, new and massive weapons, and a scale of artillery barrages never before imagined.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xhPbWf6MI&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Slaughter in the Trenches"</a> This episode looks at trench warfare on the Western Front, which was at stalemate in 1915. Communications proved to be a major drawback for both sides, as messages were sent by runners - who invariably faced death. Two simultaneous battles to push back the Germans were launched at Artois by the French, and by the British at Festubert in May 1915. Both failed and brought the realisation that such massive casualties could not be sustained. With a need for more troops, Lord Kitchener went about a recruitment campaign that amassed some one million volunteers. The new volunteer soldiers lacked the discipline of the regulars, and were regarded with some disdain.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IPkjlg5q8o&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Blood in the Air"</a> In the battles of WWI a new theatre of war was to emerge -- the sky. This new warfare was to prove just as deadly as the trenches, where pilots flew into battle with as little as five hours flying experience, with an average life expectancy of 11 days in 1914. Initially the aircraft replaced hot air balloons as a reconnaissance device, spying and photographing deep behind enemy lines, but in 1915 aviation pioneer Fokker revolutionised the aircraft as a weapon when he synchronised a machine gun with a propeller -- allowing German pilots to annihilate French and British planes.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezm5c5zd6Zo&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Killers of the Sea"</a> In this episode we discover that there was only one major clash of fleets in World War 1. Instead, the war at sea was one of blockades and sinkings and a small but feared U-boat. By August 1914 Germany and Britain were building massive and expensive warships - the dreadnoughts. The British controlled the North Sea, and built up supplies by commandeering all goods heading for Germany. Britain's survival depended on keeping her trade routes open, and for this reason Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare on merchant shipping.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JA5gnJpvY0&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Mayhem on the Eastern Front"</a> When war broke out in 1914 the Eastern Front campaign moved swiftly. Austrian troops invaded Serbia, and Russia, as Serbia's ally, invaded both Germany and Austria. The Austrians quickly retreated, demoralised by the success of the Russian advance. Yet against the Germans, 50,000 Russians were killed or wounded at the battle of Tannenberg. German Generals Hindenberg and Erich von Ludendorff, spurred on by their easy victories against the Russians, dreamed of an extended German empire to the East.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDZpvlDac-8&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Victory and Despair"</a> For the Allies, 1918 proved to be the costliest year of the war. On the Western Front 2 million British and 3 million French were either captured, wounded or killed - over a few miles of French and Belgian mud. On 21 March 1918, General von Ludendorff attacked along a 64-mile front which was to be the greatest attack yet seen in modern industrialized warfare. The Germans advanced 20 miles in 14 days, and von Ludendorff set his sights on Paris and victory. Field Marshall Haig rallied his British troops to fight to the end. Casualties ran at 350 000 for both sides, and the toll taken on von Ludendorff's troops had overstretched his war machine.</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.133382Thu, 31 Oct 2013 03:50:45 -0800BlasdelbTwo Cathedralshttp://www.metafilter.com/128463/Two%2DCathedrals
<a href="http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owena.htm"><i>My subject is War, and the pity of War.<br>
The Poetry is in the pity...<br>
All a poet can do today is warn.</i></a><br>
Two 20th century choral masterpieces share more than Biblical texts. Benjamin Britten's well known <a href="http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=441">War Requiem, Op. 66</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Mauersberger">Rudolf Mauersberger's</a> lesser known <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZXg8lNH2g">Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst</a> were both written in response to the destruction of medieval architecture and major churches in WWII bombings.
Since 1956, the cities of Coventry and Dresden have been <a href="http://www.coventry.anglican.org/news/pressreleases/opt/0/download/532">twinned</a> to promote peace and understanding. <b>Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, Op. 66</b><br>
<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/68314/Coventry-Cathedral">This post</a> and <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/97581/It-was-frosty-and-there-was-a-harvest-moon">this post</a> give excellent background information on the bombing of Coventry Cathedral (November 14, 1940).
Recordings with Atlanta Symphony (soloists: Lorna Haywood, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Benjamin Luxon)
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srRkNyW0224">I. Requiem aeternam</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6aFh1y9Jow">II. Dies irae</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep8-VRRdVA4">III. Offertorium</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU6yqbybMaA">IV. Sanctus</a>
Recordings with original performers (Galina Vishnevskaya, Peter Pears, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau):
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flEp_xxer88">V. Agnus dei</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgVpjv7ebeA">VI. Libera me, part 1</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O06a7sspY3c">VI. Libera me, part 2</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d55wp3F_yQ8">VI. Libera me, part 3</a>
<a href="http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/reqtext.html">Complete text of the War Requiem</a>
The <a href="https://dallassymphony.com/blog/2012/11/1/program-notes-britten's-war-requiem.aspx">instrumentation and physical placement</a> of the performing forces makes the work difficult but imposing to stage. Each group plays a specific role: the male soloists play the soldiers of Britain and Germany; the soprano soloist stands apart from the large chorus, but shares the words of the Mass in a questioning fashion; the boychoir is placed furthest from the audience and sings calm settings of the Latin liturgy. The massive symphony (to say nothing of the extra chamber orchestra) includes triple woodwinds and brass, four percussionists and both a large concert organ and small portable organ for the boychoir.
<a href="http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/req1.html">Britten's writing</a> is often onomatopoeic: heavy use of the F#-C tritone suggesting death knells, orchestral accompaniment suggesting heavy shelling and gunfire during the tenor solo <a href="http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen2.html">Anthem for Doomed Youth</a> in the opening movement. Asymmetrical meter adds to the sense of fear and uncertainty; the "crippled march" feeling deemphasizes the usual meter of the Latin texts' repetition.
The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000E6EGXM/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/">1963 recording</a> sold an astonishing 200,000 copies in the first five months, with three soloists chosen in a spirit of unity: Russian soprano <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galina_Vishnevskaya">Galina</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/arts/music/galina-vishnevskaya-electrifying-soprano-dies-at-86.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Vishnevskaya</a> (NYT), English tenor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pears">Peter</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/04/obituaries/sir-peter-pears-is-dead-eminent-tenor-was-75.html">Pears</a> (NYT) (<a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/michaelwhite/100008605/remembering-peter-pears-benjamin-brittens-lover-and-mouthpiece-on-his-centenary/">Britten's companion and muse</a>) and German baritone <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Fischer-Dieskau">Dietrich</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/arts/music/dietrich-fischer-dieskau-german-baritone-dies-at-86.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Farts%2Fmusic%2Findex.jsonp">Fischer-Dieskau</a> (NYT). The soprano <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Harper">Heather Harper</a> had stepped in at the last minute during the work's Coventry premiere because the Soviet government prevented Vishnevskaya's travel.
In 1989, Derek Jarman's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ-gwqHEIUs">avant-garde</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcv25o9dKqs">film</a> <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_requiem/">of the work</a> (with the 1963 recording as the only sound) lured <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Olivier">Sir Laurence Olivier</a> out of retirement for what became his final appearance. Olivier plays the Old Soldier whose reminiscences structure the film; he recites <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176833">Strange Meeting</a> (later passed between the tenor and baritone soloists in the final movement) in the prologue. The film also stars Tilda Swinton, Sean Bean and Nathaniel Parker (as Wilfred Owen).
Excerpt from the Offertorium: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ9k95wko8I">Parable of the Old Man and the Young</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGbHMJIBKg8">Lecture</a> (1:13:51) on the background of the War Requiem by David Lockington, director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra.<br>
-------------------------------
<b>Rudolf Mauersberger's "Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst" (RMWV 4/1)</b><br>
For over 40 years, Mauersberger was Kapellmeister at Dresden's Lutheran <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreuzkirche,_Dresden">Kreuzkirche</a>, the largest church in the eastern German state of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony">Saxony</a>. He directed the <a href="http://www.kreuzchor.de/english/chor.php">Dresdner Kreuzchor</a>, a boychoir (and school) in existence since roughly the year 1300. Among the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-dresden">8,000</a> to <a href="http://www.whale.to/b/dresden_p.html">200,000</a> dead (estimates varied widely due to inconsistent reports of refugee numbers), the Kreuzchor lost <a href="http://www.overgrownpath.com/2006/02/dresden-requiem-for-eleven-young.html"> eleven young members</a>.
<a href="http://jesuitjoe.blogspot.com/2011/04/tenebrae.html"> Mauersberger's text</a> weaves lines together from various parts of the biblical <a href="http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Lamentations_of_Jeremiah">Lamentations of Jeremiah</a> (Martin Luther's translation), about the <a href="http://www.raystedman.org/bible-overview/adventuring/lamentations-the-therapy-of-trouble">destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by Nebuchadnezzar's army</a>. The Lamentations are historically read as part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenebrae">Tenebrae</a> services beginning on Maundy Thursday; Mauersberger composed the piece on Good Friday and Holy Saturday of 1945, <a href="http://www.overgrownpath.com/2008/11/how-lonely-sits-city.html"> premiering it in the ruins</a> of the Kreuzkirche on August 4, 1945. Parallel open fifths reflects the feel of desolation, while the repetition of "Warum?" ("Why?") and "Ach, Herr, siehe an mein Elend" ("Lord, see my affliction") reinforces the lament.
The Kreuzkirche was rebuilt in 1955, but the Frauenkirche, a symbol of Dresden, took much longer. Because of the Communist rule of East Germany, the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/europe_dresden0s_frauenkirche/html/2.stm">ruins of the Frauenkirche</a> were left in place to remind citizens of WWII. As sacred space was not a priority for reconstruction, <a href="http://www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/wiederaufbau+M5d637b1e38d.html">rebuilding</a> only began after German reunification. <a href="http://www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/daten-fakten-aufbau+M5d637b1e38d.html">Tens of thousands of original blocks</a> (now blackened by fire) were mapped into a computer system and replaced in positions as close as possible to their original locations. The Frauenkirche was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4389904.stm">rebuilt and reconsecrated</a> in 2005, 60 years after the bombing. <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/46259/Risen-from-the-ashes-the-Dresden-Frauenkirche">Previously.</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vom8MsSAtiQ">Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst</a> is frequently performed in Germany, as is Mauersberger's later <a href="http://www.academia.edu/1830955/Rudolf_Mauersbergers_Dresdner_Requiem_1947_48_East_German_Reconstruction_and_Communities_of_Bereavement">Dresdner</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r1rWziUo2M">Requiem</a>. The latter is virtually unknown in the United States. Mauersberger premiered it in February, 1949, four years after the firebombing. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.128463Mon, 27 May 2013 21:32:34 -0800MadaminaOperation Overlordhttp://www.metafilter.com/126148/Operation%2DOverlord
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/">PhotosNormandie</a> is a collaborative collection of more than 3,000 <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/photosnormandie/">royalty-free</a> photos from World War II's Battle of Normandy and its aftermath. (Photos date from June 6 to late August 1944). The main link goes to the photostream. You can also peruse <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/sets/">sets</a>, which include 2700+ images from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/sets/72157611749224223/">US</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/sets/72157611794620956/">Canadian</a> National Archives. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.126148Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:21:02 -0800zarq"Are we the baddies?"http://www.metafilter.com/120193/Are%2Dwe%2Dthe%2Dbaddies
Danish author <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A379406">Sven Hassel</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel">Wikipedia</a>, <a href="http://www.svenhassel.net/">official site</a>) has <a href="http://borsen.dk/nyheder/ritzau/artikel/3/1571360/kulart_dansk_krigsforfatter_er_dad.html">passed away at the age of 95.</a> (Danish - <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fborsen.dk%2Fnyheder%2Fritzau%2Fartikel%2F3%2F1571360%2Fkulart_dansk_krigsforfatter_er_dad.html">Translation</a>) Hassel fought for the Germans during WWII and became famous after publishing <a href="http://www.dansmith.info/hassel/books2.asp?Book=1">Legion of the Damned</a>, a semi-autobiographical account of the war. He went on to write <a href="http://www.dansmith.info/hassel/books.asp">thirteen more books</a> following the adventures of his convict battalion, incuding Wheels of Terror which in 1987 was made into the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093546/">The Misfit Brigade</a> staring Bruce Davison and David Patrick Kelly (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PU4t5tw9zI">clip</a>). He will be remembered fondly by all who browsed the bookshelves of charity shops as young men. tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.120193Sun, 23 Sep 2012 13:51:07 -0800ArtwHistory doesn't always repeat itself; sometimes it rhymeshttp://www.metafilter.com/112008/History%2Ddoesnt%2Dalways%2Drepeat%2Ditself%2Dsometimes%2Dit%2Drhymes
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/world/europe/germany-marks-frederick-the-great-300th-birthday.html">Germany celebrates a leader who was instrumental in bringing her power and glory as well as being responsible for carving up Poland</a> The 300th birthday of Frederick the Great. tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.112008Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:44:16 -0800RenorocThe Great Warhttp://www.metafilter.com/109331/The%2DGreat%2DWar
It's the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month where I am right now, so I present to you <a href="http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/browse">Europeana</a>, a project collecting memorabilia and stories from the period of the Great War (1914-1918). tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.109331Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:01 -0800unliteralMarch of Timehttp://www.metafilter.com/106741/March%2Dof%2DTime
From 1935 to 1951, Time Magazine bridged the gap between print &amp; radio news reporting and the new visual medium of film, with <i>March of Time</i>: award-winning newsreel reports that were a combination of objective documentary, dramatized fiction and pro-American, anti-totalitarian propaganda. They "often <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/movies/03newsreel.html">tackled subjects and themes that audiences weren't used to seeing</a> — <a href="http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,29759791001_0,00.html">foreign affairs</a>, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,46069707001_1932140,00.html">social trends</a>, public-health issues</a> — and did so with a combination of panache and subterfuge that today seems either absurd or visionary." <small>(Previous two links have autoplaying video.)</small> By 1937, the short films were being seen by as many as 26 million people every month and <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma04/wood/mot/html/introduction.htm">may have helped steer public opinion on numerous issues,</a>
including (<a href="http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,30862130001_1915520,00.html">eventually</a>) America's <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma04/wood/mot/html/timeline2.htm">entry to WWII</a>. Video samples are available at <a href="http://www.time.com/time/video/search/0,,,00.html?cmd=tags&q=March%20of%20TIME">Time.com,</a> the <i>March of Time</i> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/themarchoftime?sk=app_2392950137">Facebook page</a> and the entire collection is available online, <small>(free registration required)</small> at <a href="http://www.hboarchives.com/apps/searchlibrary/ctl/marchoftime">HBO Archives.</a> Two pages at the March Towards War site are linked above. The <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma04/wood/mot/html/home_flash.htm">full site thoroughly examines March of Time as a propaganda effort</a>. <small>(Autoplaying video.)</small> Also includes a quiz: <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma04/wood/mot/html/quiz_content.htm">Spot the Fake</a>.
Some <em>March of Time</em> clips were subject to <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma04/wood/mot/html/censor.htm">censorship</a>. Most featured reenactments, faked photos and footage. They are a look into <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090305590.html">how the editors of Time wanted people to think about the news</a>. More about the series <a href="http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/343404|0/75th-Anniversary-of-The-March-of-Time.html">at TCM</a>.
In 1938, <em>March of Time</em> produced a sixteen-minute short film entitled "Inside Nazi Germany," one of the most controversial films ever released into American theaters. (Available in two parts on YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-pNum5j3EM">1</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPZ-QsNk9g">2</a>.) The CBC documentary series about the history of news media, "Dawn of the Eye," <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTvJPLxcwiU">discussed</a> the film and its impact. tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.106741Mon, 22 Aug 2011 08:33:39 -0800zarqU-853http://www.metafilter.com/103241/U853
<a href="http://www.desausa.org/de_photo_library/battle_of_point_judith.htm">"ALL U-BOATS. ATTENTION ALL U-BOATS. CEASE-FIRE AT ONCE. STOP ALL HOSTILE ACTION AGAINST ALLIED SHIPPING. DÖNITZ."</a> <a href="http://www.desausa.org/de_photo_library/battle_of_point_judith.htm">"The order was to become effective at 0800 the following morning. However, of the 49 boats then at sea, several were submerged and would not receive the message. Among them was the U-853."</a>
Sixty-six years ago today, <a href="http://www.resonantfrequency.com/u853/boat-info.htm">off the coast of Rhode Island</a>, the last German U-boat in American waters was sunk at <a href="http://www.desausa.org/de_photo_library/battle_of_point_judith.htm">the Battle of Point Judith</a>.
<a href="http://www.ecophotoexplorers.com/u853.asp">"Built in 1943 [...] the U-853 had been a recent addition to the German Navy. [...] She was nicknamed Der Seiltaenzer (Tightrope Walker) by her crew and had reached her operating position off of New England late in the month of April 1945."</a> tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.103241Fri, 06 May 2011 09:02:28 -0800AugieAugustusPrisoner 918http://www.metafilter.com/102493/Prisoner%2D918
802 Prisoners attempted escape from Auschwitz. 144 were successful. Kazimierz Piechowski, a Polish boy scout, was one of them. Today, at age 91, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/11/i-escaped-from-auschwitz">he tells his story</a>. <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8833004586259980268#">"Uciekinier (The Escapee)"</a> is a 42-minute documentary about him.
Here's an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDcX6Nx8DQ">additional short (3-minute) documentary about / reenactment of his escape,</a> narrated by Mr. Piechowski. tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.102493Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:21:42 -0800zarqA G.I.'s WWII Memoirhttp://www.metafilter.com/97851/A%2DGIs%2DWWII%2DMemoir
Robert F. Gallagher served in the United States Army's 815th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (Third Army) in the European Theater during WWII. He has posted his memoir online: <a href="http://www.gallagher.com/ww2/index.html">"Scratch One Messerschmitt,"</a> told from numerous photos he took during the war and the detailed notes he made shortly afterwards. From <a href="http://www.gallagher.com/ww2/side_effects.html">"Side Effects of the Story"</a>
<i><blockquote>"In the year 2007, I was approached by DWNY Productions, Inc. who was working on a movie called "Revolutionary Road" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, two of the leading movie stars of the day. The studio was interested in using pictures from my story taken in Paris during my trip to Nice, France in 1945 - see Chapter 27, Rest and Relaxation. We arranged a financial agreement and although I sold them ten pictures they used only one. In it, they transposed my face with that of Leonardo DiCaprio."</blockquote></i> tag:metafilter.com,2010:site.97851Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:16:33 -0800zarqThe Battle of Stalingradhttp://www.metafilter.com/97076/The%2DBattle%2Dof%2DStalingrad
<em>In the scale of its <a href="http://www.history.com/shows/wwii-in-hd/videos/world-war-ii-battle-of-stalingrad#world-war-ii-battle-of-stalingrad">intensity</a>, its destructiveness and its <a href="http://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/?p=5699">horror</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad">Stalingrad</a> has no parallel. It engaged the full strength of the two biggest armies in Europe and could fit into no lesser framework than that of a life-and-death conflict which encompasses the earth.</em> - The New York Times, February 4, 1943 <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalingrad-Antony-Beevor/dp/0140249850">Anthony Beevor</a>'s is considered the definitive history. The battle is the backdrop of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/03/06/060306crbo_books?currentPage=all">Vasily Grossman</a>'s major novel <em>Life and Fate</em>. tag:metafilter.com,2010:site.97076Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:25:54 -0800Joe Beese1942 maps of the invasion of the United Stateshttp://www.metafilter.com/87982/1942%2Dmaps%2Dof%2Dthe%2Dinvasion%2Dof%2Dthe%2DUnited%2DStates
Metafilter's own <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/user/93858">JF Ptak</a> has an <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2009/12/mapping-the-invasion-of-america-1942.html">interesting post</a> on the Life magazine issue of March 2nd, 1942, readers of which were confronted by some startling maps detailing possible Axis invasion strategies for North America. There was invasion down the <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83542d51e69e2012876464f08970c-pi">St. Lawrence valley</a>, there was invasion via <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83542d51e69e2012876464d69970c-pi">Trinidad</a>, via <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83542d51e69e2012876464f5c970c-pi">Bermuda</a>, <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83542d51e69e20120a74337e2970b-pi">full frontal west coast</a>, and down the <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83542d51e69e2012876464725970c-pi">west coast</a> as well - note the mapping of the large "fifth columns". As Ptak notes, maps such as these with huge arrows pointed menancingly at the American homeland were very much not the norm of the day. In a second post on his <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/">marvellous site</a>, Ptak discusses Life's <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2009/12/the-invasion-of-america-1942-part-ii.html">dioramas of imaginary battles</a> in the United States between Axis and Allied troops, and also outlines the development of the "Amerika" <a href="http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2008/06/bombing-manhatt.html">German heavy bomber</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2010:site.87982Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:11:51 -0800RumpleThe House on Garibaldi Streethttp://www.metafilter.com/86383/The%2DHouse%2Don%2DGaribaldi%2DStreet
The <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/eichcap.html">capture</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann">Adolf</a> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/eichmann_01.shtml">Eichmann</a> is one of the more <a href="http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/adolfeichmann.aspx">daring</a> <a href="http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/eichmanntrialcapture.html">spy operations</a> in the post WWII era. The story spans 17 years, beginning with Eichmann's clandestine escape from the Allied forces and the Nuremberg trial, and ending with his hanging in Israel. After WWII, Eichmann was able to escape the Nuremberg trials and the subsequent efforts of Nazi hunters in Europe. He worked as a farmer for 5 years, before he was able to gain passage to Argentina with the help of an organization that helped ex-Nazis defect to South America.
However, Nazi hunters like <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-capture-of-eichmann-how-a-nazihunter-tracked-down-his-biggest-prey-507700.html">Simon Wiesenthal</a> never forgot about Eichmann and the crimes he had committed. After years of chasing false leads, the Mossad finally found Eichmann and assembled a team to capture him. This team included <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,576973,00.html">Rafi Eitan</a> and <a href="http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/Eichmann/Malkin251000.html">Peter Malkin</a>. The team followed Eichmann and planned his capture, which ended with the Israelis smuggling a drugged Eichmann aboard an El-Al plane and making two transcontinental flights that pushed the plane's limits.
The operation <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/08/secondworldwar.usa">caused embarrassment</a> for some of the world's superpowers. But, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqbWOYO6bAg">the trial went on nonetheless</a>.
Subsequent generations have <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bascomb21-2009apr21,0,5254400.story">studied</a> this capture and the impact it had on the world as a whole<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bascomb21-2009apr21,0,5254400.story"></a>.
You can find repositories of Eichmann related documents <a href="http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/eichmann.html">here</a>, <a href="http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/">here</a>, <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB150/index.htm">here</a> and <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Eichmanntoc.html">here</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2009:site.86383Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:35:26 -0800reenumA mass-casualty exercise EVERY SINGLE DAYhttp://www.metafilter.com/76617/A%2Dmasscasualty%2Dexercise%2DEVERY%2DSINGLE%2DDAY
<a href="http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_6951">Join Devin Friedman at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a city of broken men.</a> During the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, <a href="http://www.landstuhl.healthcare.hqusareur.army.mil/">Landstuhl Regional Medical Center</a> in Germany has blossomed into the hub of one of the most amazing and miraculous wartime medical systems in modern history. Each week sees 14 flights into and out of the medical center, delivering dozens of war wounded from the battlefield and back out to the more specialized care centers back stateside; the rapidity of care and transit from the war fronts to stable medical care has decreased the mortality of serious wartime military injuries to just ten percent, from the high-20s/low-30s of previous wars. This is an incredibly nice look at the Landstuhl system from the perspective of a single planeload of injured soldiers. tag:metafilter.com,2008:site.76617Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:14:38 -0800delfuegoLethal harvesthttp://www.metafilter.com/75734/Lethal%2Dharvest
"When you're on your own in that pit with the bomb in the middle of a city, it's strange how everything suddenly goes totally quiet..." <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,584091,00.html">Interview</a> with one of Germany's most experienced bomb disposal experts as he retires. <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-36126.html">Photogallery</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2008:site.75734Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:46:57 -0800fearfulsymmetryRabbit Raising in German Concentration Campshttp://www.metafilter.com/59855/Rabbit%2DRaising%2Din%2DGerman%2DConcentration%2DCamps
<a href="http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/feature/angora/">The Angora rabbit project</a> was an SS-administered program to breed rabbits for their soft, warm fur, one use of which was to line the jackets of Luftwaffe pilots. The rabbits were raised in luxury not far from the maltreated prisoners in 31 Nazi concentration camps in Germany, including Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Concentration_camp_dachau_aerial_view.jpg">Dachau</a>. <a href="http://www.leemiller.co.uk/images/photos/large/1049.jpg">Here</a> is a photograph of the hutches taken by <a href="http://www.leemiller.co.uk/main.aspx">Lee Miller</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2007:site.59855Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:31:35 -0800tellurianAgent ZigZaghttp://www.metafilter.com/58643/Agent%2DZigZag
<a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/ezine/Articles/Articles.asp?ezine_article_id=1806&amp;Quiz_id=0">James Bond eat your heart out</a> - the name's Chapman, Eddie Chapman. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codename_Zig-Zag">German spy</a> who was awarded the Iron Cross and a yacht. A <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2538976,00.html">British spy</a> who probably saved vast chunks of London from bombs. But above all, <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/debate/letters/article1291077.ece">a conman</a> with a penchant for "prostitutes, cognac, gambling, Savile Row tailoring
and fast cars" <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/media/ZIGZAGdossierfinal.pdf">according to his spymasters</a> <small>(warning - PDF)</small>. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agent-Zigzag-Ben-Macintyre/dp/0747587949/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/203-9863780-7713555">Read the book</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zigzag-Incredible-Wartime-Exploits-Chapman/dp/0749951567">Or the other book</a>. Or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061647/">see the biopic</a> he reportedly didn't like. He died aged 83, in case you're wondering. tag:metafilter.com,2007:site.58643Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:26:08 -0800MuffinManEnglandspiel - or 'Germany Game'http://www.metafilter.com/53669/Englandspiel%2Dor%2DGermany%2DGame
Secret agent Huub Lauwers was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3324807.stm">parachuted into occupied Holland</a> in 1941 to relay intelligence back to London. His capture by the Germans marked the beginning of the <abbr title="German, lit. 'England Game'">Englandspiel</abbr>, a deadly game of cat-and-mouse intelligence that cost the lives of over fifty agents. Lauwers frantically tried to inform the <abbr title="Special Operations Executive, British WWII intelligence organisation">SOE</abbr> that he had been caught, but the <a href="http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/WWII/SOEhistory.html">Baker Street Irregulars</a> just didn't get it. Or <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/13/nsoe13.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/13/ixhome.html">did</a> <a href="http://worldofwarre.blogspot.com/2006/02/cog-in-allys-war-machine.html">they?</a> <small>[more inside]</small> tag:metafilter.com,2006:site.53669Sun, 06 Aug 2006 15:46:23 -0800goodnewsfortheinsaneFrom the Diary of Adam Czerniakow on the Eve of the Deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto, 1942http://www.metafilter.com/49280/From%2Dthe%2DDiary%2Dof%2DAdam%2DCzerniakow%2Don%2Dthe%2DEve%2Dof%2Dthe%2DDeportation%2Dfrom%2Dthe%2DWarsaw%2DGhetto%2D1942
<em>"They are demanding that I kill the children of my people with my own hands"</em></br>On October 4, 1939, a few days after Warsaw's surrender to the Nazis, <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Czerniakow.html">Adam</a> <a href="http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/czerniakow.html">Czerniaków</a> was made <a href="http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/search/index_search.html">head of the 24 member Judenrat, the Jewish Council <em><small>(write "Czerniakow" in the linked page's search box)</small></em> </a>responsible for implementing German orders <a href="http://warsawghetto.epixtech.co.uk/WarsawGhettoMap.htm">in the Jewish community</a><small> <em>(interactive map of the Warsaw ghetto)</em></small>. On July 22, 1942 -- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av">Tisha B'Av</a>, the "<a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/TishaBav.htm">saddest day in Jewish history</a>" -- the Judenrat received instructions that <a href="http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/warsaw%20ghetto.html">all Warsaw Jews were to be deported to the East</a> <small>(exceptions were to be made for Jews working in German factories, Jewish hospital staff, members of the Judenrat and their families, and members of the Jewish police force and their families. Czerniaków tried to convince the Germans at least not to deport the Jewish orphans)</small>. Czerniaków kept a diary from September 6, 1939, until the day of his death. It was published in 1979 in the English language as the "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566632307/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/">The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniaków: Prelude to Doom</a>", edited by one of the <a href="http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/vq/VQSUMMER01/truths.html">most prominent</a> Holocaust <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Raul%20Hilberg&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/002-9823318-2459235">scholars</a>, <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEED61038F933A1575AC0A964958260&sec=&pagewanted=all">Raul</a> <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E2DC1038F932A2575BC0A963948260&sec=&pagewanted=all">Hilberg</a>. More inside. tag:metafilter.com,2006:site.49280Fri, 17 Feb 2006 11:22:29 -0800matteoThe London Cagehttp://www.metafilter.com/46608/The%2DLondon%2DCage
<a href="http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=434480">The London Cage.</a> Kensington Palace Gardens is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Palace_Gardens">one of the most exclusive addresses in the world</a>. Between July 1940 and September 1948 three magnificent houses there were home to one of Great Britain'smost secret military establishments: the London office of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, known colloquially as the London Cage. It was run by <a href="http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page255.html">MI19</a>, the section of the War Office responsible for <a href="http://www.williamglynn.co.uk/si/002953.html">gleaning information from enemy prisoners of war</a>, and few outside this organisation knew exactly what went on beyond the single barbed-wire fence that separated the three houses from the busy streets and grand parks of west London. <a href="http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Leaflets/ri2029.htm">The London Cage was used partly as a torture centre</a>, inside which large numbers of German officers and soldiers were subjected to systematic ill-treatment. In total 3,573 men passed through the Cage, and more than 1,000 were persuaded to give statements about war crimes. A number of German civilians joined the servicemen who were interrogated there up to 1948. More inside. tag:metafilter.com,2005:site.46608Sat, 12 Nov 2005 08:16:18 -0800matteoPobediteli: Soldiers of the Great War.http://www.metafilter.com/45961/Pobediteli%2DSoldiers%2Dof%2Dthe%2DGreat%2DWar
<a href="http://english.pobediteli.ru/" title="Although the Great Patriotic War was certainly a part of World War II, the Russian (and many former Soviet) people perceive it as a separate war in which the very existence of their country and their national identity were at stake. The team of historians, writers, designers and programmers who created this project did not intend to correct this perception, but rather to document it for future generations, and to share the memories and experiences of the veterans.">Pobediteli: Soldiers of the Great War.</a> <em>In this year of the 60 Anniversary of the Victory we wish to personally thank the soldiers of the Great War living among us, and tell the story of their heroism.</em> tag:metafilter.com,2005:site.45961Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:38:24 -0800monju_bosatsu